The Braves have the youngest player mentioned in these columns to date, and second baseman Ozzie Albies has one of the higher ceilings of the young prospects going into 2018. Meanwhile, the Rangers added Willie Calhoun in a trade last July, and in the process they may have cemented one of their outfield spots for several years to come.

Here’s a closer look at both:

Braves: Ozzie Albies, 2B

2017 stats: .286/.354/.456, 217 AB, six HRs, nine 2Bs, 36 K, 21 BB

Albies has been highly touted for a few years now, so his presence in the majors is not that surprising. What is surprising, however, is how quickly he arrived. The Braves signed Albies in 2013 out of Curacao, and he impressed immediately when he began playing stateside in their instructional league in 2014. From there, it was a short trip through the farm system to the majors.

The 20-year-old second baseman was called up for the last two months of the 2017 season, and he took a few weeks to acclimate. But Albies really took off in a late-August series against the Reds. Batting just .179 coming into that series, Albies went on an eight-game hitting streak that boosted his batting average by close to 100 points. Albies had seven extra-base hits in that stretch, contributing to the six home runs, nine doubles, and five triples he hit across just 57 games in Atlanta.

Why he could break out: It’s easy to see why: Albies is young but adjusted to major league pitching like a veteran hitter, and he had impressive plate discipline during his 2017 stint.

At 20, Albies could easily still be figuring out the lower levels of the minor leagues, but he rocketed through the Braves’ system, his worst hiccup being his initial sojourn in Triple-A when he hit .248 with an 89 wRC+. Usually when hitters this young reach the majors, they struggle for some time, but Albies took less than three weeks. And once he started to hit, he didn’t stop. From Aug. 19 through the end of the season, he had at least one hit in 33 of his 41 games, and had multiple hits in 13 of those.

Even with the struggles of the first three weeks, Albies still struck out only 14.8 percent of the time, which across a full season would put him around the top 30 batters in the league. His 8.6 percent walk rate would put him in company with hitters such as Jose Altuve and Francisco Lindor. A lot of this success is because Albies rarely swings at pitches outside the zone. But when he does, he makes contact more than 70 percent of the time. Albies made medium or hard contact roughly 85 percent of the time last year, much of which came against fastballs. But he also punished sliders — a pitch not known for being kind on green hitters — at a .467 clip.

Rangers: Willie Calhoun, OF

To get Yu Darvish at the trade deadline last season, the Dodgers shipped one of their best prospects to Texas. Calhoun immediately joined the top group of Rangers prospects, and his tenure in Triple-A with the Rangers was brief.

Calhoun was added to the 40-man roster in mid-September, so his first look at the majors was short, but he managed to pack some punch in that time. He homered just once in his 13 games, but it was against Justin Verlander. There’s promise of more power too; Calhoun went yard 27 times in Double-A in 2016, and 31 times in Triple-A this year before his call-up.

Calhoun was moved to the outfield in the minors because of suspect second base defense, and the 23-year-old has adjusted well. He commited just one error in 74 innings in left field for the Rangers. And since changing positions, he had recorded no errors in more than 200 innings in the outfield in Triple-A.

Why he could break out: The sample size is small, but Calhoun struck out just under 19 percent of the time in his debut. This is up significantly from his usual strikeout rate in the minors, where he struck out around 11 percent of the time in 2016 and 2017. It’s safe to assume his strikeout rate will level out.

Calhoun controls the strike zone effectively as well, swinging at only 34 percent of pitches outside the zone, but making contact on 70 percent of those. In general, he’s a good contact hitter, and though he tended most often to pull the ball with the Rangers, he has been an all-fields hitter during his minor league tenure.

There’s the aforementioned promise of power, too. Calhoun made mostly medium contact and very little soft contact during his 34 at-bat stint in September, so it’s reasonable to expect that he can make more hard contact across a longer stretch of games, and this, combined with his approach at the plate, can make him a valuable addition to a Rangers lineup that already comes with a lot of pop. There is no real competition for playing time in left field for Calhoun, so expect to see a lot of him there in 2018.

Next week: A look at who has the best shot to break out for the Pirates and Mariners.